Starcraft II closed beta begins this month

If you'll excuse me, I must construct additional pylons.

I love Blizzard, can't wait for Battle Net 2 and Diablo 3.

@ fps_d0minat0r I guess the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, crysis series, witcher, sins of a solar empire, better version of dragon age, DoW2, and the million other games aren't good exclusives to you? But i agree on some level, this game should be better then any of the ones i listed.

yes,consoles are in a better shape then PC!!!

@fps_d0minat0r Good exclusive in a long time :?. Either you've been living on a rock or pc exclusive games these days are crap.. With all these delays I wouldn't be surprised if SC2 gets delayed next year yet again..

Not bad! I hope its better than C&C4... they killed the series for me with that one.

Hahahahaha, citing Innos007666 and the trailer's marine: "Hell, it's about time!" indeed!! :D

@ MERGATROYDER CnC4 is an amazing beta? Your joking right? I'm amazed how ea managed to destroy a game as well as they have with cnc.... But back on topic Starcraft and Warcraft1-3 are 2 of my favourite stratergy games blizzard knows how to make a good rts and unlike most companys I know if they've delayed it it's only to make it even better

I'm shocked. I truly believed this game was coming out in 2011. Looks like I may be owing someone money in the summer.

looks like PC will finally get a good exclusive after a long time.....hopefully. ill wait till guild wars 2 for a gaming pc though.

beta weee want to play it badly and i hope ther wont be much mistakes in beta cant wait :D

Finally a beta!

Oh yes =)

Whenever the beta is shut down, expect the actual game release in the next 2 - 3 months. Which means Star Craft II is finally coming out soon. Diablo 3 and Star Craft II are definately the most anticipated games of this decade so far.

I have been waiting for a long time to see this game made and actually be in beta stage.

The hype for this game is immense.... I just hope it lives up to expectations.

i jiz zed my pants!!woohoo!!

HELL IT'S ABOUT TIME!

I've waited so long for starcraft 2, hope I can join the Beta though

@RobbySpry Waaaah, waaaah! What a cry baby. Advertising is the name of the game in business. It's not Blizzard's problem that other RTS games are not as well-known. Just because something is heavily advertised doesn't mean it's a horrible product being made to look good. Vice versa, just because something is "under the radar" doesn't automatically make it a hidden gem either.

I really want in on this Beta. C&C4 is an amazing Beta and I can only imagine how much better Starcraft II will be. Where can I find a sign up?

Yippie!!!!!!!! can't wait for this game...!!!!!!

Ahh good. We can expect it on the shelves by 2020 then. OK I'm being optimistic I realize...

Wow nice. hope the extra time benefits the end product. well i have nodubt that it will. can't wait, hope i get in the beta.

En Taro Tassadar!

Finally!! I was expecting this to come right after DOW II and yet it seems that DOW will get its first expansion before that... At least i know that the production value of Blizzard guarantees that the game will be really ready when its launched! Is there going an open BETA, soon after the close Beta? I understand that for younger players, this game might not appeal, the same as the SC veterans. DC, WC3, Diablo and Age of mythology made history back then though! Total war series, DOW II and Oblivion-like RPGs have set some new high standards today, but Blizzard always has a hidden ace to show! I am certain that SC 2 will be one of the best games of 2010 and there is nothing that EA can do about that! On the other hand, having a complete strategy game, like Napoleon around the corner, may work as a reminder that times have changed and just a 3D version of SC1, split in 3 expansions for milking and force you to pay a monthly fee, when CR will be free, set some really really high expectations for this one. TW will offer a deep and lengthy SP and DOW II 5 races, free MP with monthly updated and free content. For SC 2 to cost so much more than them, it has to offer smth substantially better! If there is one company out there, able to do that though, its Blizzard! IMO this is the biggest bet of their history. SC, WC3, Diablo, even the recent WoW, didnt have any real competition and have led the way. SC 2 will face great competition and this will either confirm that Blizzard really is what we make them out to be, or they were just lucky and opportunistic, as some of their haters claim!

who cares about the ten+ years of development, the game is going to come out sooner or later. Why all the hate on the hype? i'm for sure stoked to play this game but to hate on blizzard for taking forever is just retarded. We all know that the game will please, so we all can be patient for the time being. It's not like we all dont have lives outside the virtual world anyways, reguardless of what the "non-gamers" think.

Diablo, D2, WC, WC2, WC3 all sold in some three or four million copies, to date. That's not bad at all. But it's not as impressive as many other games today that also happen to be welcoming to casual players and very well advertised that sells half a million every month. SC has sold 11M to date over all these years. That's quite impressive. Or at least would have been if half of them literally weren't purchased by Koreans who are nuts for gaming in general. WoW has reached the 11M mark too, in quite a short time. How many sales do you think WoW would have received so far if it wasn't insanely advertised all over the world? There were most likely millions of people who never even had heard of MMO games before that started playing WoW simply because of the advertisement. That's not quality of game-play or "OMG Blizzard's doing an MMO!". That's smart advertising in something that nobody advertised much at all before. Adults who never even played games before play WoW, because they're LONELY. lol It's all about accessibility and living on old hypes. "Haters gonna hate." You're the only one showing hatred in here today. Nighty night.

MachShot: "That's like saying:" "Michael Jordan just happened to come in at the right time - it surely wasn't his skill. Einstein wasn't that smart because had other people been given a chance, they'd be able to come up with theories of relativity too. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't that great because even if he didn't do what he did, eventually somebody would've done what he did." MJ created something new at a time when people were ready for something new. SC had something that no other RTS games had at that time: an easy way to play online against others. Different things, same effect, in their respective area. Of course someone else would have come up with the theory of relativity. It's not nearly as complex as many other theories, new and old. He worked with many people who were interested in the same thing. The reason why we all know about it is because it affected our recent look on the world in many ways. King is a subjective thing to bring up. If it wouldn't have been King it would have been someone else. They could still have had a completely different size of breakthrough. I don't see why you just can't accept the fact that Blizzard are focusing on other things than those that i am interested in. They did things smart. Focused on more than just the games themselves, which is why they didn't have that great or lengthy single-player experiences. The multi-player part would never have happened if it wasn't for Battle.net.

@RobbySpry That's like saying: Michael Jordan just happened to come in at the right time - it surely wasn't his skill. Einstein wasn't that smart because had other people been given a chance, they'd be able to come up with theories of relativity too. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't that great because even if he didn't do what he did, eventually somebody would've done what he did. Haters gonna hate.

WICKED!!

i'm gonna get C&C4 instead..........not

This game looks awesome, and I'm not really a PC gamer. It is about time to upgrade though...

"Hell, iss about tayme."

About damn time!

Let the haters hate, they are just jealous that this game will definitely sell millions. I bet at the end of the day they will buy it anyway. lol Starcraft 2 will save the dying RTS genre.

We need a chatroom for some of the people below LOL All I got to say about this is "BOUT TIME". Man they have been milking the public for SOOOOO LONG. Lets get this beta out and get a release date set. Then you can milk us another year or 2 on the "expansions" before another year before Diablo 3 lol. Gotta love Blizzard.

TO BLIZZARD: have you ever read the "cried wolf" story.... You might want to take a look at that. Enough BS and finish Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Warcraft 4(perhaps)

Pooey_Mess: "This is going to be overhyped, overrated, and overplayed, just like the original. I know it's a sin to say it, but the game was decent back in the day and the sequel doesn't look much better." That's another way of saying it. Blizzard did the right thing at the right time with getting Battle.net up and running for their series-starting games. Once you've built up a hype, you can live on it whether the games are better than other games in the genres or not. There is NOTHING wrong with this. A lot of people are obviously enjoying Blizzard's creations, so nobody can deny that SC, WC, WoW and Diablo are bad games in any way. I know two really fanatic Blizzard fans. The only game that they will never stop playing is Diablo 2, and that one i can understand. D2 is unique at what it does. Dungeon Siege 2 has a lot more content and a much longer story, so that's still something i, as a non-Blizzard fan, favor over D2 (although i loved D2 as well.) They moved on from SC long ago and WoW apparently gets incredibly boring after a year or two. The most fanatic of these fans actually started hating Blizzard after he stopped playing WoW because he noticed how many good MMOs there are out there that are completely free to play. I'm not saying Blizzards games are worse than any others. But i'd say Blizzard's real skill lies at marketing and at striking with new things at the right times, not with exceptional game-play. And if you're not in with the hype, the next game in the series isn't likely to drag you in since Blizzard are focusing on continuing their old series rather than creating something new. Which from a non-Blizzard fans' point of view is pretty dull. But what does that matter to Blizzard? They've probably got the largest loyal fan-base of all game developers (after EA with the Sims of course.) They have no need whatsoever to impress me as a non-fan of SC. So they don't try for it.

I WANT THAT MARINE MINIATURE!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;(

...cont... So therefor, it's a lot more likely that SC's popularity comes from the success of Battle.net, and not from the game itself. It has been easily accessible to anyone from the start. And of course with the spreading of the word about the popularity of SC comes even more popularity. If you want to play an RTS online, why go for any other than the game that everyone knows is the most popular? Same thing with WoW. WoW is the most advertised MMO of all time and seems easy to get into. How could it fail in such an internet-based society as we live in today? Blizzard isn't about making amazing games. It's about making games that people think are games that anyone, including casual players, can get into and enjoy. The actual competition is something that a selective few usually get into, so i don't believe it's part of SC's success.

As a zerg player, I am looking forward to one change they made, and only one change. If you are a fellow zerg player than you will probably let out a shudder of pleasure when I say: "Burrowing Ultralisks"

For me, starcraft finds the perfect balance between simplicity and complexity, but to be honest I have never really gotten into many other rts's.

yifes "Yes, it's easy to dismiss Starcraft as simple when you dismiss abilities as ineffective when you don't know how to use them." The fact is that whatever is going on in the most competitive of competitions in SC is going on elsewhere too. I'm not attacking SC. I'm simply explaining it's features and comparing it to other games. I'm just stating what we already know, and by trying to defend it you're just nailing the messenger, not the facts. I hope you continue having fun with SC2

This is going to be overhyped, overrated, and overplayed, just like the original. I know it's a sin to say it, but the game was decent back in the day and the sequel doesn't look much better.

MachShot: "Reaction and APM are a huge part of the SC game. So huge that in a match between superior strategy vs superior APM, the APM is always the favorite. It's called matchups and it happens in every form of competition. Wow, a 10 year vet? What did you do all this time? Play single-player?" I know at least much about this as you do. You can save the show for yourself. "It's one thing to say that you prefer CNC3's flow of game and strategies over SC's. However, it's another to start saying things such as...." "Any fan of the "Age of" and Civilization series can bash CNC3 for the very same reasons: CNC3 is a click fest, Age of Empires you can truly flank, Civilization is about deep logical thinking, etc." Aware of, aware of, aware of. SC is simply the most prominent example of this. SC2's not gonna be any worse just because i point out what's not especially great about the first SC. "I expect much more thoughtful insight from a so-called 10-year veteran. But all I hear is "waaaah, SC is fast, no strat, rush rush rush! waaaaah". That must be the sound of you crying, Machy, because i'm doing this via text, not voice. What else do i need to say? SC is a simple game and therefor doesn't need anything more than a simple explanation. I have still not said that SC is a bad game and i never will. You're the one who's seemingly on the verge of despair and who could use toning down. I'm not your enemy. We're in the same boat. I'm just in the bow while you're in the stern.

This game better be 10+ years of awesomeness. No excuses.

Finally the news that people have been waiting for in years is finally here! Even though I'm not planning to enter the beta, but the most important of all is that the actual game's release, and especially the beta, are closer than ever!

@RobbySpry Just to give you some examples of the abilities I've listed: Malestrom: froze a good portion of enemy zerg in place while masses of psionic storms was unleashed to devastate the helpless zerg army. Stasis: Froze battlecrusiers in place giving the protoss a temporary numerical advantage Distruption web: Disabled seige tanks to allow for zealots to make range and break a massive terran seige hopping offensive. Each of these strategies were used in professional matches, and resulted in a decisive victory for the outnumbered protoss. But you somehow think they're not very effective, which shows how little you know. And these weren't even exceptional examples. You know so little and yet you think you have all the answers; that's just mindboggling.

@RobbySpry Reaction and APM are a huge part of the SC game. So huge that in a match between superior strategy vs superior APM, the APM is always the favorite. It's called matchups and it happens in every form of competition. Wow, a 10 year vet? What did you do all this time? Play single-player? It's one thing to say that you prefer CNC3's flow of game and strategies over SC's. However, it's another to start saying things such as, and I quote you: "The matches i saw of professional players competing in SC2 with commentary were all button-mash. Hardly any strategy at all." "It was all about speed, which means button-mash." Any fan of the "Age of" and Civilization series can bash CNC3 for the very same reasons: CNC3 is a click fest, Age of Empires you can truly flank, Civilization is about deep logical thinking, etc. I expect much more thoughtful insight from a so-called 10-year veteran. But all I hear is "waaaah, SC is fast, no strat, rush rush rush! waaaaah".